Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 18/2017:4-21 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2017.005

Two Aristotle's Propositions about the Sense Perception

Roman Hloch
Filozofická fakulta, Ostravská univerzita v Ostravě

The concept of sense perception constitutes considerable part of Aristotle's De anima. As such, this concept is abundant source of his philosophical thoughts. In this paper, I shall focus on two Aristotle's propositions about sense perception: 1) a sense organ is potentially as such, as his sense object is actually; 2) a sense is a capacity to receive sensible form without the matter. By analyzing this propositions, I shall expose their mutual connection. I shall also expose important and indispensable role of potentiality and actuality in Aristotle's concept of sense perception. I shall sketch the modern debate between materialist and spiritualist interpretations and possible solution of this disputation, which may answer the question about the character of change during the act of sense perception, and also the question about the role and relation between physiological sense organ and formal sense. By this I shall clarify both propositions 1) and 2) their relation.

Published: September 30, 2017  Show citation

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Hloch, R. (2017). Two Aristotle's Propositions about the Sense Perception. Aither, 9(18), 4-21. doi: 10.5507/aither.2017.005
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